


Misfit

by Anonymous



Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Eugeo is a ball of anger and dissatisfaction, I feel the need to warn you again that this is not to be taken seriously, Kirito has issues TM, M/M, and somewhat of a dick, don't take this seriously, rated M now for Eugeo being horny, reincarnation au?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2020-07-27 03:57:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 16,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20039551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Eugeo had met a stranger that had cried upon catching sight of him and knew him too well.





	1. Chapter 1

There was a weirdo.

At first Eugeo had thought it to be some sort of prank to make fun of the obviously foreign exchange student – though Eugeo definitely had Japanese ancestry – but when the boy continued to act strange even after multiple days had passed and people started laughing at him instead of Eugeo, Eugeo had to conclude that his behaviour wasn’t some sort of bullying attempt.

Meaning he should probably search help.

It felt like a cruel thing to think but he’d already teared up thrice just from being around Eugeo and Eugeo wasn’t quite sure what was setting him off but it was creepy nonetheless, especially because he was _sure_ he had never met the boy before. He’d even asked to make sure but Kirigaya Kazuto had been born and raised in Japan, so there was absolutely no reason for him to look like Eugeo had killed his dog every time they came across each other.

Eugeo turned across the corner, still staring at the flyer for club applications, stuck between two choices, and promptly ran into something. He stumbled backwards a little bit but the person who he had ran into – or ran into him? Was there a culprit in this situation? It had been pretty mutually careless – fell flat onto their ass.

He must have run into a girl, was his first thought because Eugeo was by no means particularly sturdy. Eugeo looked down, an apology on his lips, before he froze.

Oh no.

He’d run into Kirigaya.

Then again, there wasn’t much of a difference really. And Eugeo wasn’t just saying this as some prejudiced foreigner who thought all Japanese men looked like girls, literally everyone agreed that Kirigaya looked like a girl but was nice enough not to say it to his face. On the other hand some people had jokingly asked Eugeo how it felt to have a schoolgirl crushing on him, so maybe not nice but just polite enough.

Thankfully all of that was just in jest. Nobody seemed to seriously believe that Kirigaya had a crush on him and despite Eugeo’s fears, Kirigaya’s relationship with his classmates seemed to be stable… Or well, more like his lack of a relationship. Kirigaya ignored them and they ignored him back and that was the balance held in class. When absolutely necessary they interacted with each other but nobody made any real effort to bridge the gap between them.

Eugeo would feel worse about that if he hadn’t seen Kirigaya turn down any social interaction he came across and very honestly speaking, Eugeo himself was not about to touch the landmine that was Kirigaya Kazuto.

“Ouch”, Kirigaya cursed and looked around frantically before he picked something off the ground and was that a Gameboy? Well, maybe not a Gameboy it looked too sleek for that but Eugeo had no idea what the devices today were called. PSP? No that was also at least ten years back…

Kirigaya let out a sigh of relief when he took a look at it and Eugeo seriously contemplated just disappearing before Kirigaya had finished his inspection. Unfortunately before he could take even a single step backwards, Kirigaya had finally fulfilled checking his first priority – apparently his gaming device – and was now ready to confront the situation.

“Eugeo?”, he said, sounding surprised when he looked up, and Eugeo blinked because had he just really been addressed without any suffix at all? Japanese people tended to be less cautious with using first names and even suffixes when meeting and talking to foreigners but still that was quite rude.

Kirigaya apparently realized his mistake because he coughed, seeming slightly embarrassed when he stood up. “I mean, Eugeo-kun.” He glanced at the gaming device in his hand then quickly pushed it into his pocket like Eugeo would just forget about its existence and smiled awkwardly at him. “So… uhm”, Kirigaya glanced away. “Fancy meeting you here.”

Eugeo had the feeling Kirigaya had forgotten about the fact that they had bumped into each other less than half a minute ago.

“… Right.” How long was he expected to stay here and endure Kirigaya’s absolute awful attempts at conversation in order to not seem rude? At least he wasn’t crying this time. Eugeo would count himself lucky. “Are you all right?”, he asked because he was not a complete asshole and Kirigaya blinked at him.

“What?”

“I just ran into you”, Eugeo explained since Kirigaya obviously had no idea what he was talking about.

“Oh that.” Kirigaya seemed to contemplate something, tilting his head to the side.

“That’s true. You shouldn’t—“, Kirigaya’s eyebrows rose when he looked at the paper in Eugeo’s hand, clearing his throat awkwardly. “Being distracted while walking is no good, Eugeo-kun, someone could get hurt.”

Was Kirigaya seriously going to pretend Eugeo hadn’t seen him playing a game while walking down a hallway in school…?

Looking at Kirigaya fidgeting in place gave him the answer.

Yes.

Yes he was.

Eugeo decided to diplomatically just say nothing. This was not worth it.

“I’m sorry for bowling you over.”

“… It happens, I’m not really bothered.” Eugeo was about to smile or nod or maybe even do both at once before turning around when Kirigaya decided to open his mouth again, his voice coming out in a nervous rush. “But if you feel so bad, how about you buy me an ice-cream at the convenience store?”

What?

“An ice-cream?”, he asked because surely his hearing had to have failed him.

“They have a limited edition papaya flavoured popsicle right now.”

“Right.”

Kirigaya grinned at him. “Then, let’s go!”

Wait what?

Kirigaya didn’t give him any time to respond before rushing towards the shoe racks and putting on his shoes in record speed. He hovered next to Eugeo while Eugeo followed his lead, still too confused by the recent developments to react appropriately, Kirigaya almost glowing in excitement and, huh, had he just fallen in some convoluted attempt of Kirigaya’s to befriend him?

“They have some green tea that is not too bitter, so I’m sure you’ll like it”, Kirigaya said while they were leaving the school, the sun blinding them for a moment.

“A-Ah, I see.”

How did Kirigaya know he didn’t like all too bitter things…?

Kirigaya glanced at him before looking away again, fiddling with his schoolbag. “Have you—“, Kirigaya stopped seemingly changing his mind in the middle of the sentence. “How do you like school?”

“It’s different”, Eugeo started carefully. “The school system in Europe is less rigid.”

“…”

“…”

“How is it more rigid?”, Kirigaya asked, black eyes surveying him from below his fringe.

Oh no.

This _was_ Kirigaya’s absolutely weird attempt to make friends.

Eugeo had no idea what made him so different from his classmates that Kirigaya seemed to avoid like the pest but for some reason he had been singled out. Eugeo opened his mouth and then closed it again.

Was Kirigaya a gaijin-hunter? Eugeo hadn’t paid all too much attention but now that he was thinking of it, Kirigaya was kind of otaku like even though Eugeo hadn’t really seen him play any games before today. Then again, Kirigaya had been mostly busy pretending to be not staring at Eugeo while obviously being conscious enough of his existence to trip over a basket with balls inside during gym.

Everyone had noticed it too, so it had been uncomfortable to say at least.

“Well… leaving aside obvious things like the school uniform, I’d say school in Europe is more of a dialogue while school in Japan feels more like a monologue”, he responded after some seconds, not wanting to be rude.

Kirigaya hummed thoughtfully, before changing the subject abruptly. “Have you already made some friends?”

Eugeo twitched, wondering if there was anyone that would actually respond with a no to that question, smiling awkwardly. “The people in our class have all been very friendly.”

Kirigaya muttered “Foreigners are rare after all” quietly enough that he probably thought Eugeo couldn’t hear it but Eugeo could and it wasn’t like he hadn’t already guessed why everyone was this nice to him but did Kirigaya have to point it out?

“That’s great”, Kirigaya said out loud, nodding at him, and Eugeo had the urge to push him down another time, this time on purpose because he was not about to be patronized by Kirigaya of all people.

“Are you in a club?”, Eugeo asked, mostly to make sure he didn’t enter the same one.

“Oh. No…”, Kirigaya seemed a little bit tense. “I’m not part of a club…”

So basically he went straight home and probably played games if Eugeo wasn’t reading all the signs wrong. Kirigaya might be even more of a loner than he had thought.

“Having that much free time must be nice”, he said instead of voicing any of his thoughts and Kirigaya’s shoulders relaxed.

“You are planning on joining a club right?”

“… I don’t know yet, I was just looking at it.”

“Is there anything you are interested in?”

“No, not really.”

Kirigaya bit his lip, his grip on his bag tightening some. “I see. Good luck.”

Eugeo refused to feel bad for hurting Kirigaya’s feelings.

“Over there is a really good café. The prices are a little bit high but the food is worth it. You should go there sometime with some of your friends.” Kirigaya was pointing at some small building that Eugeo would have probably not even noticed without his interference.

Kirigaya hadn’t said we but you and was smiling at him a little bit sadly and damn it, Eugeo was feeling bad for hurting Kirigaya’s feelings.

“Ah, we’re here.”

Eugeo looked up to see the logo of the convenience store, wondering how he could have missed the fact that they were already there, and sighed. He supposed as a thanks for showing him that café, he could fork out 200 Yen for some popsicle.

“You wanted papaya, right?”, he asked turning to Kirigaya who startled.

“Oh, no. It’s fine. I’m not really feeling like ice cream after all”, Kirigaya was pretty much looking at anything but Eugeo before he took a step back. “Sorry for making you come along with me.”

“Eh— but—“

“So, Eugeo-kun, see you tomorrow.”

Kirigaya turned around before Eugeo had the chance to say much more, waving half-heartedly at him before quickly crossing the street, and Eugeo was left standing there, feeling a lot like he had just been dumped.

After being dragged along this whole way.

By Kirigaya.

Eugeo resisted the irrational urge to kick something and bought himself a macha ice-cream instead. It was sweet.

He was definitely going to kick Kirigaya’s ass for this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Both Kirito and Eugeo might seem out of character but I did try to base their personalities on traits already present in cannon. Like Kirito is based on pre-SAO Kirito while Eugeo is just showing off the more 'negative' parts of his personality. Nurture matters a lot.  
... Leaving aside any excuses, I already said this wasn't to be taken seriously.


	2. Chapter 2

“Good morning, Kirigaya-kun”, Eugeo greeted him the next day, Kirigaya hitting his table with his knee out of pure shock, causing his open bag to fall to the floor, books and pens spilling out.

“E-Eugeo—!” Kirigaya blinked at him, looked at the mess on the floor, and scrambled up to clean up the mess, some red on his cheeks. If Kirigaya wasn’t such a weirdo it might have been almost cute.

Also, he hadn’t used a suffix again…

“You are a klutz, aren’t you?”, he asked, hearing some amusement colour his own voice before he leaned down and helped him pick up his stuff and yes, he definitely had one of these game thingies with him today too— wait, were those two?

Eugeo ignored the people staring at them though Kirigaya was definitely all too conscious of them, not looking at anything else but the ground and putting his belonging away as fast as possible.

“Thanks”, he said then put his bag where it actually belonged and slunk onto his seat, obviously thinking the conversation was over.

Eugeo felt slightly slighted but didn’t let that stop him from placing himself in front of his table, strangely enjoying how flustered Kirigaya seemed just because he was approaching him. “Are you free today?”

“W-What?”

“I didn’t get to buy you a popsicle yesterday, so I thought that maybe today would be a better choice. It’s supposed to become twenty-eight degrees outside.”

Kirigaya’s eyebrows furrowed before he looked down, his hair shadowing his face. “You don’t—“, Kirigaya broke off his own sentence surveying the classroom. Eugeo wondered what he was searching for but his attempt was apparently unsuccessful because he turned back again and sighed. “Just pretend I’ve said yes. I don’t really mind you coming up with something.”

“… What are you talking about?”

Kirigaya shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. “You’ve been told to do this right? It’s obvious you don’t actually want to hang out with me…”, the last part was said almost as a whisper and Eugeo felt something in his heart tug painfully.

“I wasn’t!”

“Fine. I’ll come along.”

Kirigaya was busying himself getting out his school material and Eugeo had to turn around and leave to stop himself from screaming. He was sure nobody had heard their conversation but he could still see some people whisper in the background and it might have been him projecting but their laughter sounded like it was directed at him.

He felt frustrated but he wasn’t quite sure at whom. Maybe it was at himself because while Kirigaya was wrong, he wasn’t exactly doing this to friend him either.

Kirigaya avoided looking at Eugeo afterwards and Eugeo couldn’t believe how annoyed he was at that fact when he had wished nothing more but for Kirigaya to stop staring at him just yesterday. Instead Eugeo was now the person sneaking glances at him and the role reversal was some kind of cosmic irony that Eugeo could not appreciate at all.

Eugeo had wanted to talk to Kirigaya again come lunch but some people came up to approach him and somehow Kirigaya had managed to vanish in the few seconds he had been preoccupied. With no other choice Eugeo warily approached Kirigaya’s seat neighbour who was avidly gossiping over something on his phone with another boy. “Excuse me, have you seen Kirigaya?”

The boy startled and quickly closed his phone. “— oh crap, don’t scare me like this, I thought you were a gi— I mean, a teacher, I thought you were a teacher for a second.”

Kirigaya’s seat neighbour snorted and grabbed the phone out of his friend’s hands. Eugeo was pretty sure he was called Yamada or had it been Yamato? “No clue where he went. He usually doesn’t eat in the classroom though, so he probably has some other place he likes to hang around at? You could try to ask Take.”

“No, no, there’s no point in asking Takecchi, Kirigaya just ignored him like everyone else despite his best efforts.”

Yamada shrugged. “In that case, do you want to join us?”, his grin widened. “I found something amazing online.”

Eugeo almost flinched when the phone was shoved into his face and he should have really seen the fact that it was porn coming but mostly he was just shocked and appalled by the fact that he wasn’t just looking at porn during recess but also showing it off to others. No wonder they had been so afraid of a teacher catching them, he couldn’t imagine that going over well.

Unfortunately his classmates were obviously waiting for an answer and a little bit panicked and put on the spot, Eugeo said the first thing that came to mind outside of ‘what the hell is wrong with you’. “She looks like Kirigaya.”

… Literally everything else_ including_ ‘what the hell is wrong with you’ would have been better than this.

Yamada’s eyes widened before he broke out in laughter, his friend next to him seeming weirdly flustered. “That’s just great— oh, man, that’s amazing, he discovered your type Takada!”

“Wha—“, Takada stuttered, pushing at Yamada’s shoulder. “Don’t say such misleading things!”

Eugeo’s eyes flicked from one person to the next, wishing dearly he’d never even attempted asking for help.

“No, really, shut up, stop laughing Yamato!” Ah, so he had gotten the name wrong. “I just like black haired, black eyed beauties! And no guys! Not that Kirigaya is a beauty—“, his friends laughing increased. “Stop it already! You’re making me look bad!”

“Can you believe it, Takada actually tried to flirt with Kirigaya once that was _hilarious_”, he chuckled.

“… I see…”

“I thought he was a girl!”, Takada burst in, a little bit too loudly because he gathered some attention from other classmates.

“Ohh, wait are you talking about that time Takada completely embarrassed himself?”

“Shut up, Maki!”

“Now, now, don’t be like that Takada!”, Maki drawled, joining the conversation without being invited. “You’re not the only one who was cheated. Some guys at an arcade made the same mistake recently.”

“Woah, really?”, Yamato put away his phone, in Eugeo’s opinion way too interested in the gossip right now. “What was their reaction? It must have been priceless.”

“It was. They became angry as hell, I was honestly wondering whether they’d attack him.”

“Talk about having a bad reaction, whew.”

That was pretty much the farthest away from funny that Eugeo could currently think of but he swallowed his misgivings like a bitter pill, waiting for an opportune moment to arise so that he could just leave and search for Kirigaya instead. By himself. Alone. Away from these people.

“But how many times has this been by now?” _When had he?—_ two other people had merrily joined their circle by now and Eugeo was genuinely starting to get confused about who was who. Being surrounded by western faces all his life, Asian faces weren’t the easiest to distinguish for him in the first place.

“I don’t know but maybe Kirigaya should contemplate giving up on being a guy.”

“That’s horrible Maki!”

“What? Being kind of quiet and unsociable might actually be in his favour if he became a girl!”

“Did you break up with your girlfriend again?”

“Shut it, Hayato, nobody understands why you are still dating Sakano-san from class 3-B.”

“Mieko is great—“

“She never shuts up and she isn’t even pretty. Like I don’t care about the personality but they gotta be cute at least, right Hanano?”

“… Maybe you want to go for Kirigaya then after all.”

“Oh fuck off, Hanano.”

Surely drowning the people around him could be labelled as pest control instead of murder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finished this chapter aeons ago but suddenly got busy and didn't find the time to proofread it. The next one should be out faster. It's also pretty short so double-whoops.


	3. Chapter 3

Needless to say he did not get to talk to Kirigaya until school was over and he found him at the school lockers. Kirigaya looked a tint resigned when he saw him but sent him a tight smile nonetheless.

It was beyond him why Kirigaya would smile at him if he thought Eugeo was following some elaborate plot to make fun of him but maybe Kirigaya was really just that nice.

Or stupid.

Eugeo would go with stupid.

Helping people out to hurt you was just plainly reckless; there was a limit to being a good person before it became foolish. It made him want to shake him.

Instead he took a deep breath and put on his shoes, waiting until Kirigaya was done with his own to approach him.

“That was fast”, Kirigaya said before he slung his back on his shoulder and walked out of the school, Eugeo following him.

It was slightly more bearable outside than inside but he was still sweating buckets and he could see that Kirigaya wasn’t faring much better. “I’m dying”, Kirigaya complained, cringing away from the sun.

“You’re over-exaggerating”, Eugeo replied, watching Kirigaya pout next to him.

“How will you take responsibility if I actually fall over dead?”

“Not at all. You’d still have to go home even if I wasn’t there and an ice-cream is not going to make things worse.”

“How cold.”

Eugeo rolled his eyes. The more he talked to Kirigaya the more he saw his opinion on him confirmed. An awkward, clumsy, weirdo without friends. He wasn’t so bad, Eugeo guessed, when he didn’t randomly burst into tears or cajole you into buying him ice cream.

Kirigaya grabbed his bag and searched around for a few seconds before he found a plastic bottle and started drinking some water. Eugeo was pretty sure that he had heard that eating on the streets was considered bad manners, especially while walking, though he had no clue if drinking was also under it.

“Want some?”, Kirigaya asked, having followed Eugeo’s gaze.

“But—“ _It’d be an indirect kiss_, he found himself thinking and then wondered whether he had gotten brain damage from listening to his classmates talk. Kirigaya was a guy. He even had around the same height, so just because he was kind of frail and delicate didn’t mean that Eugeo could start treating him like a girl. “No, thank you”, he found himself answering nonetheless.

Kirigaya shrugged. “So you are one of these people concerned about bacteria.”

No.

Eugeo decided to just let him assume.

“Well, I don’t really like it either when strangers ask me to share my drink.”

Then why ask?

“Strangers asked you?”

Kirigaya stopped for a second, his lips pressing against the bottle. “Like… classmates…?”

“Ah.” Eugeo was starting to get an idea of how Kirigaya saw the world.

Wait, under that definition wasn’t he a stranger too?

Kirigaya took another sip of his bottle before he eyed up the rest critically and threw it over his head. Eugeo let out a startled noise watching the water trail over his hair and face before wetting his shirt, the fabric clinging to his skin and oh.

Kirigaya was not wearing anything underneath.

“What are you doing?!”

Kirigaya sent him a weird look. “Cooling down. Water usually helps.”

Eugeo bit his tongue and turned away because he couldn’t exactly say that the way his clothing outlined his chest was kind of obscene. The heat definitely had to be getting to him.

“Eugeo-kun?”, Kirigaya asked, seeming mostly confused.

“Just give me a moment.”

“… Okay…?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The biggest struggle while writing this is honestly going through the chapters like five times and still finding Kirito somewhere instead of Kirigaya. Thankfully Word has a search function so there shouldn't be Kirito anywhere where it doesn't belong anymore.


	4. Chapter 4

Eugeo bought Kirigaya two papaya popsicles, mostly because he was feeling kind of guilty, and Kirigaya took them with a raised eyebrow. On Kirigaya’s recommendation, Eugeo bought himself some melon flavoured ice cream and again it was a hit. Kirigaya looked exceedingly smug when Eugeo admitted reluctantly that he had liked both recommendations so far, and it had made Eugeo want to pinch his cheek but it wasn’t exactly a bad expression on Kirigaya’s face.

Kirigaya made a small, pleased sounding noise when licking his ice cream, causing Eugeo to accidentally bite into his ice cream, the pain from his teeth freezing distracting him for a second before his eyes wandered over to Kirigaya again. It wasn’t like he did anything overly weird but he was just so… careful – his mind wanted to supply gentle but his mind could shut up, it had already done enough damage today – while licking the ice cream. He ate it slowly, enjoying it thoroughly, and Eugeo wanted to tell him that if he didn’t hurry up his other ice cream would be completely melted by the time he was finished with his first but his throat just closed up and he stared like an idiot.

“Ah, gross”, Kirigaya said when some of the ice cream melted and ran down his fingers then he leaned down and dragged his tongue over the mess—

What on earth was Eugeo looking at?

Kirigaya looked up through his lashes and not good, they had meet eyes, now Kirigaya would think he was some pervert that got off on watching other people eat popsicles—

Kirigaya’s eyes widened. “Uh, Eugeo, your ice cream!”

Eugeo flinched and looked down, looking at the small puddle beneath him. “Crap.”

Kirigaya burst out into laughter and Eugeo wished quite maliciously that his own ice cream would drop to the ground. “What are you doing—it’s hot! If you’re going to daydream, it’s going to melt!”

“Like your second popsicle?”, Eugeo said quite petulantly, Kirigaya’s eyes widening in realization.

Kirigaya poked the wrapping that distinctly moved under his fingers and cleared his throat. “It’ll be fine if I refreeze it.”

Eugeo sighed at the mess on his hand, glad that nothing had gotten on his shoes, Kirigaya finishing the rest of his ice cream before he took a look at the stick and put it away.

“I think I have some tissues somewhere, wait a second.”

Eugeo eyed up his own ice cream and leaned forward, trying not to create more of a mess before licking it. The ice cream unceremoniously broke off and landed with a splat on the ground. Kirigaya unsuccessfully tried to suppress a snort and Eugeo turned around to glare at him while Kirigaya tried to look innocent.

“I heard that.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about”, Kirigaya answered quickly, holding out some tissues. “Need something?”

Damn it.

By the time they had to separate they had somehow changed topic from school and Kirigaya's absymal English to flowers, a subject Kirigaya was strangely interested in, and Eugeo, despite having absolutely no interest in plants, found himself transfixed by Kirigaya's avid explanation of crossbreeding.

“Until tomorrow”, Eugeo said, the slightly orange-pinkish tone of the setting sun making everything look warmer.

“… Right.”

Kirigaya nodded before moving to turn around and Eugeo grabbed his bag. “You still think that I’m doing this as some prank, don’t you?”

Kirigaya sighed and swivelled back to face him, black eyes mustering him. “Usually yes.”

“And unusually?”

Kirigaya scratched his head. “It’s not the image I have of you.”

Image? “What are you talking about?”

“Hey, Eugeo where in Europe did you live?”

“France.”

“No, I mean… City? Countryside?”

“A town pretty close to the border of Germany.”

“You haven’t come to Japan before, have you?”

“I actually have.”

Kirigaya perked up taking a step into his personal space._ “When?”_

“T-Two years ago… We went to visit my mother’s relatives in Hokkaido… why?”

Kirigaya deflated like a balloon, muttering something inaudible. “… It doesn’t really matter really.”

“That doesn’t sound very convincing”, Eugeo stated, Kirigaya smiling at him weakly.

“It’s true though.” Taking out something from his bag, Kirigaya pressed it into Eugeo’s hands.

“Why are you giving me trash?”

“It’s a hit, moron.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is such a cliche but that's exactly why I felt compelled to write it. How do I say it... it was funnier exactly *because* it is a cliche.


	5. Chapter 5

Eugeo would deny doing so if asked but he spent definitely longer than necessary next morning hovering around the school gate. He wasn’t exactly waiting for Kirigaya but he wasn’t sure how to exchange a hit for an ice cream and there was still some time left before school started, so he might as well ask now before he forgot about it.

He sighed, wondering whether Kirigaya wasn’t maybe already in their classroom. He usually never came as early as Eugeo, so he had thought for sure he’d be able to catch him before they entered class and were surrounded by too many curious eyes but either Kirigaya had been early today or he was going to be too late because there were only seven minutes left until class started.

Eugeo surveyed his surrounding another time when his eyes fell onto Maki who was sauntering slowly despite the time and wishing not to make any eye contact he quickly turned around and marched towards the school building.

“You’re late today, Mr. Transfer Student!”, Maki joked, joining his side a little bit breathlessly, and Eugeo had to try very hard to keep his shoulder from slumping. The pretty much last person he had wanted to see. Great.

“I was waiting for somebody”, he explained, hoping Maki wasn’t going to ask who because if he had to listen to any more commentary about Kirigaya, he might actually snap.

“Already found a girl?” Maki nudged his side while wiggling his eyebrows.

Instead of reacting to his goading, he just smiled blandly at him. “No.”

Maki hummed. “Then were you waiting for Kirigaya by any chance? He just passed us right now, so you should hurry up if you want to catch up with him.”

Wait. What?

True to Maki’s word Kirigaya was in front of them, quickly making his way through the people surrounding him. Eugeo wanted to call out to him but the words didn’t quite make it over his lips because there was no way Kirigaya hadn’t seen them even as disinterested as he usually was in his surroundings. So with other words; Kirigaya had ignored him. Again.

“Didn’t you want to talk to Kirigaya? You were searching for him yesterday, weren’t you?”

“No, I—“, he hesitated. Part of him wanted to lie because it was obvious that Kirigaya had walked by despite seeing them but at the same time denying the truth would just be playing into Kirigaya’s fears, wouldn’t it? “I’ll talk to him later.”

Maki looked like he wanted to ask something but thankfully kept quiet for once, quickly starting to babble about some models and Eugeo knew more about Maki’s preferences than he’d ever wanted to by the time they entered the classroom. Maki could complain all he wanted about his girlfriend breaking up with him but Eugeo thought it was a miracle he had gotten a girlfriend in the first place.

“But searching for blonde women is such a bust because they shove fugly foreign woman into your face all the time, you know?”

“…”

“I guess they have a nice rack at least but they’re fat!”

_Enough. _

“With all due respect, I think you should learn to hold your tongue”, Eugeo interrupted, his grip tight enough on his bag that it hurt. “Honestly I don’t care about your personal aesthetics but the way you talk about women is just utterly—“

“You are in the way.”

Eugeo startled, Kirigaya standing in front of them, and Eugeo moved automatically aside, suddenly aware of where he was standing. In his classroom, right in front of the door, where he was blocking everyone’s way.

Kirigaya didn’t leave right away, instead turning to Maki and used the most condescending voice Eugeo had heard from him yet. “Insulting foreigners right in front of Eugeo, are you trying to pick a fight? Don’t be surprised when he bites your head off for insulting his mother and sister at once. There is a limit to being audacious.”

Maki glanced at Eugeo. “I wasn’t trying to pick a fight!”

“So you were just letting off some steam since you are always ignored by any foreigners you approach? You have my condolences.”

“What the— fuck you Kirigaya!”

“Try to think of something better next time you insult somebody”, Kirigaya answered and slammed the door shut behind him, leaving silence behind.

Eugeo stood there awkwardly, not wanting to face the rest of the room, before Maki took the decision off his hands. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult your sister and mother. It was just locker room talk, you know? I’m sure they’re pretty and everything. We’re good, right?”

Eugeo’s mother actually looked mostly Japanese and he didn’t have a sister but he nodded nonetheless because he could take social cues and he was very sure Kirigaya had done this on purpose even if he didn’t understand why he’d go this far. “You should apologize to Kirigaya, too”, he responded.

“Hah? Why on earth should I apologize to Kirigaya?”

“Because he just stopped you from making a dick out of yourself.”

Maki looked like he was going to protest, his lips drawn into a tight line, before one of their classmates loudly shouted. “You have my condolences!”

Somebody started laughing loudly, another person joining in and Maki’s jaw relaxed somewhat, his face a mix between annoyed and embarrassed.

“Shut up!”, Maki cried without any real inflection in his voice, waving his hand at the offender.

“Try again!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake— stop quoting Kirigaya!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I first wasn't planning on naming any of the side-characters but it's way too confusing when they're having a conversation. Not to mention that Eugeo is the type of person who remembers the people around him, so names it was.


	6. Chapter 6

He waved off the classmate that approached him, making his way through the crowd to search for Kirigaya, who had been hiding from him the whole day. Like he thought he was standing awkwardly as far away from the crowd as he could without seeming like he was fleeing, his eyes flittering over their classmates before landing on Eugeo. He seemed startled but quickly averted his eyes again moving into the exact other direction Eugeo was currently walking towards and Eugeo honestly didn’t know whether to be upset or angry at this point.

“Let’s team up”, he said when he had finally caught up with him, Kirigaya freezing in place.

“Ah— uh, sure…”

Despite agreeing, Kirigaya didn’t seem pleased at all, but it wasn’t like Kirigaya had anyone else to team up with, so he couldn’t even use that as an excuse. Eugeo would feel bad about using P.E. to force Kirigaya to be around him but something was wrong and he needed to figure out what he had done to make Kirigaya avoid him like this and outside of this he wasn’t going to get many chances.

“Are you already familiar with the stretches?”, Kirigaya asked.

“… I know most of them”, Eugeo responded, starting off by stretching his shoulder before Kirigaya stopped him in place.

“That’s the third one.”

“The order doesn’t really matter, does it?”

“If you don’t do it correctly, you are going to hurt yourself. Also you are doing that one wrong.”

“I am?”

“You do it like this”, Kirigaya moved his arm, applying some pressure with his other one, his shirt pulling tighter to outline his body and Eugeo blinked before shaking his head. Then blinked again.

“…” Kirigaya’s eyebrow rose. “May I ask you what you are doing?”

“Nothing.” Maybe he had answered that a tick too fast…

“Well, that’s fine I guess. We need to do it in the right order either way. Do you remember what the first one is?”

Chancing a look at his classmates proved to be useless as they had already moved on from the first basic stretches to the more complicated ones, so he bit into the proverbial apple and shook his head.

Kirigaya clucked his tongue in mock disappointment, pointing at his own chest. “Leave it to me! Onii-san is going to do his best to teach you!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“… Eugeo?”

“Go ahead.” Did Kirigaya even have any siblings?

“You sure are cheeky.”

“You think so?” In his personal opinion if anyone could be called cheeky amongst the two of them, it definitely would be Kirigaya. Looking at Kirigaya’s smug face, it was difficult to believe that was the same boy who had acted like a startled kitten before and Eugeo was starting to contemplate whether he hadn’t just imagined Kirigaya avoiding him after all. He hadn’t done anything to deserve being shunned either but Kirigaya had definitely tried to evade Eugeo before. That just was a pure fact. So.

_What was this?_

“You didn’t greet me this morning”, Eugeo burst out, wishing to take back his words the second they left his lips. Whining like a needy child just because he hadn’t been greeted was just plainly embarrassing and he could feel his cheeks heat up.

“Oh, that…”, Kirigaya scratched his head, his hair hiding away his face somewhat. “You were talking to somebody, so I didn’t want to interrupt. I didn’t— I didn’t think you’d notice…”

“I noticed”, Eugeo forced over his lips, in spite of how awkward the situation was. “And I wouldn’t have cared if you had interrupted.”

“W-Well… that’s… something, I guess…” Kirigaya was definitely blushing by now and Eugeo had no idea how it had come to this but surely he had gone wrong somewhere. “I’ll greet you next time.”

“… I’ll greet you back.”

_What on earth was he even saying??!_

Kirigaya also seemed to find his words somewhat confusing but he just nodded in response before clearing his throat. “So do you want to do some stretches now?”

“Of course.”

This had been a horrible idea and Eugeo should have never even thought of using P.E. to figure out what was wrong with Kirigaya, he decided when Kirigaya bowed down to touch the floor, his shirt falling down to his armpits.

Dragging his eyes away from the spectacle Kirigaya was making of himself, he looked at the blue sky, enjoying the rays of sun hitting his face. At least the day was nice.

“You’re supposed to be looking! How else are you going to copy what I am doing?!”

Eugeo unwillingly looked down again. “I don’t learn so well by looking.”

Kirigaya put his hands on his hips. “Then you do the stretches and I’ll move your body.”

“Actually, go back to doing the stretches.”

“Are you making fun of me, Eugeo_-kun?”_


	7. Chapter 7

Kirigaya greeted him the next day at school.

“Good— Good morning, Eugeo.”

No suffix as always but Eugeo was starting to get used to it. “Good morning, Kirigaya-kun.” Kirigaya grimaced slightly at his words and Eugeo snorted. While he wasn’t sure what Kirigaya’s issue was with the way Eugeo addressed him, Kirigaya had yet to be able to stop himself from pulling a face.

“Very refined”, Kirigaya retorted.

“Better than your face whenever you hear me saying Kirigaya-kun.”

“It sounds gross. Why are you adding a kun?”

“Because it’s polite.” 

Kirigaya shook his head, their steps fast in the hallway. “It’s not polite if the other person doesn’t like it. Not to mention we’re almost at our classroom.”

Eugeo raised his eyebrows. “Is there a problem with that?”

Kirigaya almost stumbled, looking around the corridor, before he took a left turn into a dead end, Eugeo following him. He didn’t know how to place Kirigaya’s facial expression but his body language screamed uncomfortable. “You are— If you are seen with me, especially after yesterday, people are going to start assuming that we’re friends.”

Eugeo flinched. “… We’re not?”

Kirigaya’s eyes widened in surprise, his lips opening as if to say something before he thought better of it and cleared his throat instead. “I mean, regardless whether we are friends or not they’re going to think that we’re friends. Or well, know“, Kirigaya stopped himself there, his voice’s volume lowering a little bit. “Because we are… friends?”

A question mark being added to the end of the sentence did nothing to reassure Eugeo of the statement. “And?”, Eugeo questioned. He wasn’t quite sure how to describe the emotion that was creeping up beneath his skin but whatever Kirigaya saw on his face made him avert his eyes.

“They’re not going to react well. You’re better off not openly hanging out with me.”

“Who said that?”

“Nobody _said _that but it should be obvious.”

Eugeo had to take deep breaths to calm down before he attacked someone. “Rejected.”

“Eh?”

“I don’t see why I should be doing something as stupid as hiding my relationship with you. If they have any complaints it’s their problem.”

“That’s… reckless—”

“And”, he interrupted Kirigaya. “If you are embarrassed at the thought of being seen with me there is nothing I can do about that but I for one am not embarrassed.”

“Wha—“, there was a blush on Kirigaya’s cheeks and despite how painful the situation was, it was kind of endearing to see him care for Eugeo’s well-being like this. “You think I’m a weirdo and a creep!”

“… Yes.”

“How are you _not_ ashamed of hanging out with me!?”

“Why should I be?”

Kirigaya blinked at him before he pressed his hands against his face. “I can’t believe you, with that attitude you are aware you are just going to get into trouble, right?”

“When do I_ not_ get into trouble when hanging around with you? I’m used to it.”

Black eyes stared straight at his, Kirigaya’s lip twisting a little bit. “Eugeo-kun, when have I ever gotten you into trouble?”

When?

There was… well, regardless of how strange Kirigaya had been acting he guessed it was accurate to say that Eugeo hadn’t really suffered from it and outside of that he could just think of Kirigaya’s bribing attempt and—

When had it been again?

He was sure there had to be something, after all his friend was a trouble maker, him being so withdrawn recently was probably the only reason why nothing had gone down yet. However Kirigaya was always withdrawn, obviously both unwilling and unable to fit into his class, and outside of the one-time Kirigaya had addressed Maki to stop Eugeo from saying something unfortunate, he probably hadn’t exchanged any words with the rest of his class the whole week.

The silence stretched on for long enough that Kirigaya spoke up again, stopping Eugeo from further spiralling into his confusing thoughts.

“Forget it, you don’t need to think so hard about it, I didn’t really mean anything by it.”

Despite feeling like arguing against Kirigaya’s statement, he kept quiet about it because he honestly couldn’t answer the question and he was starting to feel slightly dizzy. “Let’s go together to class”, he interjected instead, staring straight at Kirigaya’s face to signal that he wasn’t going to back down easily.

Kirigaya sighed loudly but he would have to do a better job at controlling his reactions if he didn’t want Eugeo to notice that the corner of his lips had started to faintly rise, unable to stop himself from feeling pleased after all in spite of his protests and worries. “You are as stubborn as always, no, maybe worse…?”

“I’m not stubborn”, he retorted adamantly and Kirigaya started laughing almost fondly. It hadn’t been too long since the last time Eugeo had seen him laugh but he found himself thinking that the sight seemed nostalgic.

“Then, Mr. Not-Stubborn, you surely don’t mind letting this topic be and going to class by yourself for now?”, Kirigaya tried a last time, not sounding like he believed himself in the least but still needing to make a valiant attempt nonetheless.

“No.”

There was no reason to even think about it.

“I knew you would say that but that means you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Don’t blame me when the yuri jokes just won’t stop coming.”

“… the what?”

Kirigaya refused to extrapolate but he did come with him somewhat docilely to class without Eugeo having to drag him too much. Nothing grand happened when Eugeo opened the door. There wasn’t sudden laughter or people stopped talking or anything like that. But Kirigaya still looked like he had swallowed a sour lemon when he walked over to his table.

“Whew! Eugeo-kun, you actually friended Kirigaya, congrats!”, one of his classmates said when he had sat down.

Considering that this was coming from somebody who had been present in the train wreck of a conversation that had made Eugeo contemplate culling, he wasn’t feeling very congratulated at all.

“How did you manage?” Somebody else asked with laughter in their voice.

Eugeo decided that saying that he’d bought him ice cream would just make everything worse, so he shrugged, readying his desk. Thankfully that was it as far as conversations about his new found friendship with Kirigaya went, everybody minding their own business.

Eugeo looked over to Kirigaya and met his eyes before Kirigaya averted them after shaking his head. Eugeo wasn’t quite sure what he was shaking his head for but he wondered whether they were going to go back to the routine of Kirigaya staring at him obsessively.

He guessed it wouldn’t be that bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They're finally getting *somewhere*. This chapter really didn't want to be written but it's done. *throws up confetti*


	8. Chapter 8

“Ah, that looks yummy”, Kirigaya said, sitting under a tree together with Eugeo. Eugeo had wanted to sit on a bench like every other normal human being but Kirigaya had insisted for old time’s sake – whatever _that_ meant –, so grass that would ruin his costly school uniform trousers it was.

Eugeo sighed but let Kirigaya steal some food with his chopsticks. Kirigaya placed the food in his mouth, his teeth working for a few moments before he swallowed it down, his throat moving, then licked his lips and Eugeo’s tomato landed in the box again for the third time in a row.

It wasn’t even that Kirigaya had a habit of licking his lips or anything but from time to time he’d just lick utensils or even his own hand, mostly when he really liked something or when he was really hungry and didn’t even want to spare the residues.

Which was fine, obviously, what was not so fine was Eugeo staring like a moron at him whenever that happened.

It had to be because Kirigaya had a tiny mouth. Or tiny everything really.

Not literally everything but kind off… yes. His fingers were thin and elegant in comparison to the rest of his body but even compared to his very Asian classmates, he was below average in height. In France he’d have about average height for a girl in his year.

Eugeo would know.

Being surrounded by so many tall people had been frustrating after all.

The fact that they had about the same height but Eugeo was still so fixated on Kirigaya’s just made everything even weirder.

They’d fallen into a pretty comfortable routine which also unfortunately included Eugeo being a pushover and letting Kirigaya steal some of his food. Kirigaya would offer some of his own in exchange but Eugeo thought that ruined the whole point of giving some of his so that Kirigaya wouldn’t be hungry anymore. Of course the rational solution was Kirigaya just bringing along more food but for some reason Eugeo had started to bring along more food instead and was now essentially cooking for two people?

Eugeo thought that he had gone seriously wrong somewhere but it was too late to change anything.

Also, Kirigaya being a leech meant that Eugeo could use Kirigaya being leech to his advantage to win some arguments or simply to watch him squirm whenever Eugeo threatened to withhold his food stealing privileges. It was somehow working out for them but Eugeo couldn’t help but think it was dysfunctional.

“So in any case about that MMORPG I was playing; it’s actually originally Korean and has only been translated into Japanese, so it takes some while for Japanese players to be able to get access to new quests and hunting grounds. Some events are even Korea exclusive and it has caused some discontent amongst the fanbase but by far the biggest clincher is the fact that they changed the storyline and now nothing makes sense anymore—“

Eugeo nodded, letting Kirigaya babble on about another one of these games he was so immersed in, finally able to pick up the tomato and put it into his mouth. Using chopsticks wasn’t that difficult but some foods were still easier to eat than others. Kirigaya was if anything even a bigger otaku than he had thought though his interests seemed to lie pretty much exclusively in games. A geek then? Eugeo didn’t really care for such distinctions.

Unless Eugeo dragged him out, Kirigaya basically never left his house unless necessary, which pretty much explained how weak he was. He’d actually fallen over while doing pair-stretches with Eugeo during P.E. not too long ago and despite his excuses of having slipped on the completely dry floor, Eugeo was not the least bit convinced. He was sure that he’d simply been too heavy for Kirigaya. Eugeo himself wasn’t even particularly strong and he’d be able to push around Kirigaya if he tried. Not that he would but still.

“You need to do more sports”, Eugeo said, interrupting Kirigaya who was talking about something called ping? Eugeo had no idea what that was despite being forced to listen to a lot of Kirigaya’s lectures about games and the internet but then again it might be some programming thing. Kirigaya liked to jump from one topic to another apparently just expecting Eugeo to keep up.

“Where did that come from?”, Kirigaya asked.

“I just thought that all that gaming caused you to be really out of shape.” He knew better than to mention anything about his lack of musculature and, of course, about the fact that Eugeo could pretty easily overpower him. That was creepy.

Just because Kirigaya had acted like a complete creep when they had first meet each other – something Eugeo still hadn’t gotten an explanation for – didn’t mean that Eugeo needed to follow his lead.

“I’m not out of shape”, Kirigaya denied, pretty stupidly so in Eugeo’s opinion.

“Right.”

Kirigaya frowned at him, surveying Eugeo’s body and Eugeo felt himself twitch, embarrassment causing his cheeks to heat up. “You are not much better off than me.”

Kirigaya only had himself to blame for this, really.

“Kirigaya-kun give me your hand.”

“What?” Kirigaya lowered his bento box. “Are we going to arm wrestle?”

“We could”, Eugeo shoved his box aside. “I don’t think it’ll be necessary though.”

Kirigaya gaped at him before he put his own bento box on the ground, definitely offended. “You’re on.”

“Don’t regret your words.”

They pressed their hands against each other and Eugeo only had a moment or so to think that they were almost holding hands before Kirigaya began pushing and Eugeo lost no time to push back, very easily gaining ground to Kirigaya’s frustration. “Look, you are really out of form.”

“Shut— Shut up. Why are you so stupidly strong?”

Eugeo didn’t even bother answering that, Kirigaya’s arms shaking from trying to keep him back and really, Eugeo hadn’t even broken out a sweat yet, it was almost sad.

Kirigaya cursed something, his cheeks gaining a red tint from exhaustion, and Eugeo contemplated stopping now because Kirigaya had obviously lost and was going to fall over soon, about to overbalance, but watching Kirigaya struggle did something weird to his stomach and he found himself applying more force without his input.

At the end both of them toppled over, Kirigaya landing on the grass and Eugeo landing on him, his hands pinning down Kirigaya’s and the sight of him breathing heavily under him, his hair spread out on the grass, made Eugeo’s breath catch.

Kirigaya gulped, a bead of sweat gathering in his collarbone, and Eugeo’s eyes followed the movement, heat lazily running through his body. Kirigaya’s heartbeat was fast under Eugeo’s palm that was covering his wrist and really, he shouldn’t be this affected by so little workout.

Then again, today was really hot, wasn’t it?

“You’re heavy.” Eugeo took some seconds to comprehend his words then flushed because what was he even doing?

“S-Sorry!”, he blurted out, quickly letting go of Kirigaya’s arms and climbing off him.

What was he doing? What had he been doing? So much for not being creepy!

Kirigaya sat up, running one his hands through his hair, his clothing slightly mussed up. “Remind me not to challenge you again. I didn’t know you were this competitive.”

Kirigaya’s tone didn’t have any particular inflection but Eugeo felt shame rushing through him, feeling judged nonetheless.

“The heat… the heat got to me…”

“I see.” Kirigaya patted down his shirt, picking up some blade of grass that had somehow gotten stuck on him.

“I’m sorry.”

Kirigaya tilted his head, his hair swaying lightly, before a mischievous grin spread across his face. “Treat me to some ice cream then.”

“Again?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know what is going on anymore but Eugeo wasn't supposed to be this horny lmao.


	9. Chapter 9

“Oh, look if it isn’t the better half of our resident yuri couple!”

“Excuse me?”, Eugeo said, his smile frozen on his face.

Multiple people started snickering, though no one else spoke up.

“It’s just a joke, a joke!”, one of his classmates clapped Eugeo on the back. “Is Kirigaya also around?”

Kirigaya indeed was around, having gone off to stalk some new releases while Eugeo was looking at some shoes. Eugeo hoped he wouldn’t come back until their classmates had decided to leave. Considering how big Tokyo was, Eugeo could call this nothing but bad luck. Getting ice cream had turned into playing – no, no, _taking a walk_ – in the park and then turned into shopping. Eugeo had the sneaking suspicion he wouldn’t get anything done today anymore.

“What do you mean _better half?_ And what’s a yuri couple?”

“Oh well, it’s not…” The group looked uncomfortable right now, the person who had first greeted him trying to look like they were not there. “It’s just some stupid thing Hanano came up with.”

“It was just a lame joke! Maki was the one who wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“Why are you throwing me under the bus?”

“You still didn’t apologize to Kirigaya, did you?”

“I did!”, he retorted, obviously still upset about that.

“Then why is he still ignoring you?”

“He ignores everyone!”

The boy in the middle of the group sighed before he grabbed Maki and Hanano by the shoulder. “Guys, we’re leaving. Sorry for the commotion”, he nodded at Eugeo before dragging the protesting boys with him, the rest of the group cheering him on.

Eugeo watched them leave, bickering all the while, some laughter reaching his ears even after they had taken the stairs.

Honestly. Annoying.

“Looks tough”, Kirigaya said behind him and he whirled around, seeing Kirigaya stand around with a rueful smile.

“Yuri.”

“I told you it would happen.”

“How? Why?”

“… Because they think you look like a girl.”

“They also think that you look like a girl”, Eugeo responded in an attempt to defend himself.

_“I know”,_ Kirigaya poked Eugeo’s cheek. “Don’t you think I know what they say about me? And I’m not blind either. They had actually already started with the yuri jokes even before we became friends.”

“So when they started joking about you having a crush on me—“

“Well, I guess they held back on the part where they think that you look like a girl too when they were talking to you. You should have still seen it coming Eugeo-kun.”

“Why kun right now?”

“It fits.”

* * *

Except for the fact his classmates apparently saw his and Kirigaya’s friendship as some sort of pseudo lesbian relationship – or at the very least really liked making fun of them by pretending to do so, life was normal.

Well, kinda.

“How about that one?”, Kirigaya asked pointing at a blue shirt and it was perfect really, exactly Eugeo’s style, but it was also; _perfect_. Eugeo hadn’t really worn anything but the school uniform in front of Kirigaya, so Kirigaya shouldn’t know that blue was his favourite colour or that Eugeo liked that kind of cut on a shirt.

On that note, Kirigaya was wearing way too much black even though it was summer.

“It’s nice…”, Eugeo grudgingly admitted and like always Kirigaya looked pleased with himself and all of that was fine and dandy really. Except. It really wasn’t.

_How did Kirigaya know?_

“Great. So let’s buy it and go somewhere else then. There are too many people around.”

“Since when are you allergic towards people?”

“I never wasn’t”, Kirigaya quipped back and really, he was ridiculous.

And also perhaps a stalker.

Eugeo should be worried about how not worried he was about that possibility.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer's block attacked me and now I take approximately 5 minutes per sentence. Getting anything on paper is a nightmare but I'm trying to just fight myself through it. And hey, this is supposed to be a non-serious fic where I can fool around either way, so it's fine. It's fine. Probably.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sneaks in to post new chapter* *runs away*

Kirito, Kirito, Kirito, Kirito—

Every single game no matter what Eugeo looked at had the same name chosen. Kirito. To the online word Kirigaya Kazuto was nothing but a vaguely infamous player called Kirito.

“Why do they all hate you?”, Eugeo asked because that was definitely a death threat another player had sent him.

Kirigaya hadn’t been happy to see him looking at the game currently running on the computer in his room and Eugeo couldn’t deny feeling confused. After all, this was nothing new to him, he’d already known Kirigaya was obsessed with games, so this was little more but the visual confirmation. He only hadn’t known that Kirigaya went by the name Kirito online and really, that was such an uninventive name, it was just like him.

“They are just angry because they’re worse than me.”

Eugeo leaned over to the screen, surveying the black clothed figure that was Kirigaya’s avatar in the game. “Can’t you report them?”

“Eugeo-kun, so you were listening yesterday after all!”

Sighing heavily, Eugeo stole the mouse from Kirigaya’s grip and tried to find the reporting button, the character steering off the road and almost running off a cliff in the process. Kirigaya squeaked and pushed his hand away to save it.

“What are you doing?”, he said, his face a mix between horrified and amused.

“I was trying to report them.”

“Yeah, but, you almost killed me.”

“It’s just a game, who cares if the character falls off a cliff?”

_“I care, _I’d lose experience.” Eugeo didn’t answer, glaring at the screen instead. Kirigaya inclined his head. “Are you angry? If you want I’ll let you try the game but let me create a new character first.”

“I’m not angry at you, Kirito, but the people online attacking you like this. Just because they’re anonymous doesn’t mean they can do everything. I hope somebody throws_ them_ down the stairs instead.” He regretted voicing his thoughts right away but couldn’t quite bring himself to regret the sentiment. Kirigaya’s log was full of people threatening him or at least wishing bodily harm upon him and the threat that they’d find him and push him off the stairs was still one of the more harmless ones.

Kirigaya made a small noise, causing Eugeo to turn towards him but his hair shadowed most of his expression, the tips of his fingers white from how hard the was gripping the mouse.

“What’s wrong?”, he asked carefully, Kirigaya turning away his face.

“Nothing. It’s nothing Eugeo…”

“Kirigaya-kun?”, he slowly approached Kirigaya, his fingers anxiously hovering over his shoulder before he touched him, trying to rub soothing circles into his back. “Is there something I can do?”

Kirigaya shook his head.

“… Can you turn around?”

Another shake and Eugeo let out a slightly shaky breath. “Do you want to talk to me about it?”

“… I— I don’t know what to talk about.”

“Why don’t you start where you can?”

“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry, Eugeo… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry—“, Kirigaya’s voice cracked at the end and Eugeo for the lack of a better idea what to do, very carefully and slowly moved to hug him, giving Kirigaya ample opportunity to push him back. At the end Eugeo’s front was pressed against Kirigaya’s back because he had still not turned around, his arms held loosely across Kirigaya’s chest. Kirigaya felt even thinner than he looked in his arms and Eugeo vowed to make him eat more food and exercise. “You don’t have a reason to be sorry.”

“I have!”

“Then I forgive you.”

“You don’t have any idea what I am talking about—“

“I know.” He nuzzled against Kirigaya’s head, smooth strands tickling his cheek. “I know but I can’t even get mad at the thought of you being a stalker, so it’s probably useless.”

“S-Stalker?! I’m not a stalker!”

“Why did you start crying?”

Kirigaya huffed. “I’m not crying.”

“It’d be fine if you were crying though.”

“I know, I told you that.”

That was right, Kirigaya had told him that… but when? “Did I do something wrong?”, he asked.

“You didn’t. It’s just— you called me Kirito. It surprised me.” Maybe Kirigaya could tell that he had nothing to answer to that because he continued, something in his voice that Eugeo couldn’t place. “Do you like this world?”

“No.”

“I didn’t like it much either”, Kirigaya confessed. “But are you happy?”

“Yeah”, Kirigaya nuzzled back at him and Eugeo’s hands started shivering where they were holding onto Kirigaya. “I’m happy.”

It felt like a confession. Of what, Eugeo didn’t know.

Kirigaya smiled lightly, seemingly pleased by his answer, “I’m glad you’re happy this time.”

_This time? _Eugeo tightened his grip on Kirigaya. This was probably important and Kirigaya seemed like he knew more than Eugeo but Eugeo wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Whatever Kirigaya had to say, would it change something?

He was sure that if he didn’t speak up now, Kirigaya wouldn’t say anything more and part of him wanted to pretend that nothing was wrong but Eugeo couldn’t, not while he could almost see the weight still weighing Kirigaya down.

“Are you sure you don’t want to tell me anything?”

“I can deal with my problems by myself.”

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”

“It wouldn’t make any sense to you.”

“That’s fine. A lot of things don’t make any sense to me, really, least of all you.”

“I’m kinda sorry for that.”

“You don’t have to. It’s just another part of you that I’ve accepted. Like the fact that you are a weirdo.”

“I can’t deny it but you are not much better.”

“That’s ridiculous. You’re ridiculous.”

“But you like it, which means—“, Kirigaya poked his face playfully. “We’re accomplices.”

Eugeo wanted to protest that that didn’t make any sense but Kirigaya wouldn’t listen to him anyway, no matter what he said. Going at his own pace was just one of the things that made Kirigaya, Kirigaya. “… If you ever feel like talking, come to me. Even if it doesn’t make sense or you can’t give me context, I’ll always listen to you.”

Kirigaya stayed silent for long enough that Eugeo thought nothing was coming forth anymore, so he started pulling back before a smooth hand grabbed his retreating arm, a thoughtful frown on Kirigaya’s face. “It’s not much but… I’d like some advice.”

“I’m awful at giving advice”, Eugeo stated honestly, leaning into Kirigaya’s touch.

“Eugeo, I… how do you feel about me?” Faced with black eyes earnestly staring at him, Eugeo had to try very hard not to break the eye contact

“We’re friends.”

Kirigaya hummed.

“And… sometimes I feel like I’ve known you forever.”

“I see, I have the same feeling. But that also means— I don’t think I can fulfil your expectations. I don’t think I can be _Kirito”_, Kirigaya admitted and really Eugeo had no idea what he was talking about but his lips were pinched, his gaze studiously trained on the table and Eugeo felt something crack in him.

“Who you are right now is enough. Whether are Kirito or Kirigaya— anything is fine. You should just be who you want to be. I won’t be disappointed.”

“Those are grand words.”

“I’m not lying.”

“Is that so?”

_“I’m not lying.”_ Maybe Eugeo put more emphasis on his words than necessary but at least it got Kirigaya to face him again, the light catching in his hair.

“… you’ve always been honest… Thanks. I feel better now.”

“I didn’t do much.”

“You did more than you think you did.” Their problem wasn’t anywhere close to being solved and at the end Kirigaya hadn’t told him much but Kirigaya seemed more upbeat now than before, squeezing his hand in reassurance. Accepting the current state of affairs might be cowardly of Eugeo but for now this had to be enough.

“Then, I’ll take you upon your offer to try this game after we report the other players, Kirigaya-kun.”

Kirigaya tried very hard not to grimace and failed. “Stop that. Kazuto is fine, you don’t need to address me by my last name. Nor add a suffix.”

“Isn’t that something lovers do?”

“The rules aren't that strict. But even if they were, it would be fine. If it’s you, it’s fine.”

“Ah”, Eugeo felt his heart speed up, getting caught somewhere in the deep black of Kirigaya’s eyes. Kirigaya had beautiful eyes, they reminded him of the night sky.

Eugeo might actually be the bigger fool between the two of them.

“Then, I’m counting on you Kazuto.”


	11. Chapter 11

“Let’s join the kendo club.”

The tomato landed on the grass and Eugeo wondered whether Kazuto was doing this on purpose. Jumping at him with ridiculous things so that Eugeo with his subpar chopstick skills would embarrass himself. “Excuse me?”

“I want to join the kendo club. Together with you”, Kazuto rephrased, like this had been some sort of comprehension issue.

“You want to join a club?”, Eugeo repeated. It would have been more believable if Kazuto had really decided to fell a tree. “You’re going to actually need to move then and train. It will take time away from your gaming. Not to mention that there will be people there.”

“Does it really sound so unbelievable?”, Kazuto asked, frowning lightly.

“There will be people there.”

“You are also a person.”

“That’s different.”

Kazuto hummed and picked up a tamagoyaki from Eugeo’s bento box. “You are not exactly wrong because we are partners after all but that also means that as long as you’re with me, it’s worth it.”

Eugeo turned away, hoping that Kazuto just thought he was angry over his stolen food, a persistent blush on his cheeks. Kazuto had started with this partner thing recently and while it had basically come out of nowhere, every time the word left his lips, Eugeo’s chest would squeeze painfully, his fingers tingling. “Your classmates will be there.”

“… That might be troublesome.”

“See?”

This was a stupid idea. Kazuto absolutely did not get along with people and Eugeo didn’t need more reasons to want to hit his classmates over the head. Furthermore Eugeo didn’t deal well with Kazuto and changing rooms. Kazuto in traditional kendo garb was…

“Eugeo? Your face looks… weird.”

Eugeo cleared his throat, shoving some more food into his mouth. “Just thinking.”

“Right”, Kazuto looked slightly amused, his arm reaching backwards to grab something before Eugeo had to stop a bottle from hitting his face by catching it mid-air. “Here. To cool down.”

Eugeo turned the bottle around. “It’s unopened.”

“Since you hate bacteria.”

What did it say about them that Kazuto had started carrying around two water bottles while Eugeo essentially made food for two? “Thanks”, he said, twisting the cap open before he drank about half of the bottle at once, Kazuto stealing some more of his food in the meantime.

“We could also join a dojo”, Kazuto mused, leaning his back against the tree. Eugeo had given up on making Kazuto act like a normal human being after that one time he’d found Kazuto sleeping next to a rose bush with thorns way too sharp for Eugeo to be comfortable with his position. Apparently Kazuto just really liked trees and other plants, so the tree it was. He had made Kazuto promise however that he wouldn’t be this careless again and not risk being impaled by thorns during his sleep.

“Do you have the money for that?”, Eugeo inquired, slapping away Kazuto’s hand before he could steal the remaining tamagoyaki. He wanted to have one at least.

“Oh? I do.”

Eugeo blinked. “You do?”

“I do.”

“Why do I keep paying for your stuff then?!”

Kazuto fake-coughed, embarrassment lighting up his cheeks. “… Because you keep on offering?”

“Well, I’m not going to offer again”, he stated, closing his bento box and standing up to march towards their classroom.

“Eh?” Kazuto took a few seconds to come scrambling after him. “Eugeo-kun? Hey, Eugeo-kun, are you mad?”

Kazuto spent the rest of his break poking and prodding him while Eugeo did his best to ignore him until he finally had enough, flicking his forehead. “Cut it out.”

Kazuto touched his forehead, looking appalled enough to make any bystander believe that Eugeo had just kicked a puppy in front of him, before Kazuto thoughtlessly went and bit the finger that had just poked him. Eugeo was too shocked to react, the pinching feeling where the teeth were slightly digging into his skin sending a shudder down his spine. There wasn’t even a single residue on Eugeo’s finger when Kazuto pulled back but he could still vividly recall the slightly wet feeling and Kazuto’s hot breath on his skin.

Eugeo ignored everyone around him – the classmate sitting on the table next to him who seemed low-key scandalized and Kazuto who looked for all the world like he hadn’t just done something extremely weird and definitely sexual in front of the whole class – and scrammed, his chair skidding across the floor before he bolted out of the door.

Kazuto called something after him, sounding confused, but Eugeo didn’t have any time to deal with his utter weirdo of a best friend and partner right now.

He closed the door of the boy’s toilet behind him, hoping that nobody was going to come in for some time, before he hit his head against it, resisting the urge to slide down. Something this ridiculous; he could barely believe it had happened. “Kazuto, you moron!”, he cursed to nobody, his voice strangled and Eugeo was going to pretend that it definitely was from his run here and not anything else.

Who bit people?!

He hit his head against the door another time, glaring at his red image in the mirror. He was glad he had run. How would he have explained the redness on his cheeks?

There wasn’t anything on his finger no matter how long he looked but the phantom sensation of Kazuto’s teeth just wouldn’t disappear, so he rubbed against it, trying to get rid of the feeling. Sighing in agitation, he went to the sink and splashed some water in his burning face.

How was Kazuto going to take responsibility for this?

The door slammed open, Kazuto standing there, heaving. “Eugeo, are you all right? Do you have something on the stomach?”

Eugeo silently turned up the water tap and redirected the water so that it splashed Kazuto right in the face.

* * *

Ironically Kazuto was still sulking by the time they went home, sending him dirty looks. Eugeo who was still not over the utter humiliation of reacting like_ that_ in class was ignoring Kazuto’s unhappiness.

Thankfully Kazuto’s shirt had dried fast because otherwise Eugeo would have had to come up with some way to convince Kazuto to exchange their top or change into his sports clothing because like always Kazuto seemed to think that wearing an undershirt was superfluous and it was doing bad things to Eugeo’s heart.

“… Let’s join the kendo club after all”, Kazuto said after some time and Eugeo raised an eyebrow. He had thought that starting kendo had just been another of Kazuto’s whims, so he hadn’t thought he’d bring it up again.

“Why?”

“Because I want to kick your ass.”

“You? Mine?” Eugeo thought he could be excused if he sounded just a tad incredulous. Neither of them had any experience but Eugeo was definitely more sportive and physically stronger, so Kazuto’s self-confidence was nothing short of megalomania.

Kazuto grinned at him smugly. “I’ll make you eat your words.”

At this point Eugeo couldn’t just say no anymore, which he was pretty sure was the reason Kazuto had goaded him on like this, so he just sighed resignedly. “Fine but you are responsible if anything goes wrong.”

“… You know, Eugeo-kun, I would tell you to try to meditate but that did nothing for you either…”

“Did you just slight me for something that didn’t happen?”

“No, not all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm starting to worry about the rating of this fic. This is still considered T, right? Or do I need to move it up to M?


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not going become more explicit than it already is but I decided that if I need to ask the question whether the rating fits, it probably doesn't.

Kazuto was strong.

Eugeo watched Kazuto take out the kendo team’s vice-captain with a movement so smooth you’d think Kazuto had been holding a sword since he could walk. Of course Kazuto shouldn’t have been sparring with the vice-captain in the first place but he had taken offense when Kazuto had demanded a heavier shinai and it had somehow ended like this.

All in the time it took Eugeo to put on his gear.

If Eugeo wasn’t so angry he’d almost be impressed by Kazuto’s ability to get into trouble.

“You are impossible”, Eugeo stated when Kazuto came over with the air of somebody who knew they had done something they weren’t supposed to but was still aiming for praise. “I can’t believe you alienated all of our club members at once.”

“I wasn’t trying to. Besides, it doesn’t really matter. I have you after all”, Kazuto grinned at him and Eugeo tried very hard not to smile back because this wasn’t something to be happy about.

“Where was the point in joining a club then?”

“Well~”, Kazuto said mischievously pointing at their gear. “I can train you now.”

Oh no.

“That sounds like a horrible idea.”

“It’s a good idea! You don’t want to learn how to wield a sword…?”

It should be illegal for anyone to have more charm than an abandoned kitten but Kazuto had somehow managed it. And Eugeo was weak, way too weak.

He averted his eyes. “I do. I just don’t feel like dealing with your smug face the whole time. Where did you learn how to swordfight either way?”

Kazuto shrugged. “Nowhere.”

So Kazuto’s ridiculous good sword skills were part of ‘that’ then.

He sighed in exasperation. “I understand. Then I’m counting on you, Kazuto.”

“You can try to call me sensei—“

“No.”


	13. Chapter 13

Eugeo dreamed of two children sparring with wooden sticks and woke up to tears flowing down his face. He almost grabbed his phone to call Kazuto before he put it back, curling into his blankets.

It certainly had been Kazuto in his dream but he hadn’t called him Kazuto there but—

“Kirito”, he murmured, his chest giving a painful throb.

* * *

“I like you.”

Kazuto’s school bag fell to the ground. He quickly picked it up again, his grip on it tight. “… As a friend?— There is no way that’s it…”

Eugeo squared his shoulders, trying to be steadfast while looking into Kazuto’s eyes despite his rabbiting heartbeat. There was some red spreading on his cheeks but his friend didn’t look disgusted. It’d be fine. It was fine. This was _Kazuto._ “Romantically.”

Kazuto swallowed, his gaze wandering over the scenery. “I see… I—“, Kazuto adjusted his position. “Does that mean you are also attracted to me?”

He almost felt like lying.

“Yes.”

“—ah.”

“You sound surprised.”

“It’s unprecedented… I guess.”

Meaning— “It doesn’t fit your image of me.” It was a surprisingly scary realization. Kazuto had never given Eugeo the feeling before that he needed to act a certain way but if Eugeo failed to uphold this idea Kazuto seemed to have of him, would Kazuto be the one to leave?

“I thought you liked girls.”

“Why?”, Eugeo didn’t mean to sound as upset as he did but his tone caused Kazuto to straighten his back, suddenly alert. “I’ve not once shown any interest in girls since I’ve met you. What are you basing this on?”

“People usually assume you like girls if you don’t say otherwise”, Kazuto sighed. “… All that effort you put into Alice was also part of it though…”

“Alice?” From the book? No, he doubted Kazuto was talking in riddles. It had to be ‘that’. The problem they still hadn’t solved.

“Can you really fault me for being surprised? You never were attracted to me before.”

_This time, before_— Eugeo wasn’t slow enough to miss all these connotations. He was starting to understand Kazuto’s problem with being ‘Kirito’. Just who was he competing with? “Before, you say… I didn’t mean to agitate you, sorry.”

Kazuto startled. “You don’t need apologize—!”

“But, Kazuto, I think you are wrong. _There is no before._ I’ve found you appealing for a long time. I just didn’t want to do so.”

“… How long?”

“I don’t know. But the day you ran into me in the hallway and we went to the convenience store together I— I had difficulties looking away after you threw water onto your hair and—“, he broke off. This wasn’t something he should have brought up. Apparently even he wasn’t above rambling when nervous.

“And?”

Ugh. He shouldn’t have— Kazuto wasn’t going to let this go. “Yourshirtbecamesee-through”, he bit out in one piece, senselessly wishing it would distract Kazuto from the actual content of his words. “… That’s why… from the beginning I think your image of me was wrong.”

“My shirt…?” Kazuto hid his chest beneath his bag, his face turning beet red. “W— Wha— What the—? Why would you—? Where do you think you are looking? And that was pretty much our first interaction!”

“… That’s why I was insisting on an undershirt…”

“I’m a guy! Outside of you there’s nobody looking!”

He weighed his options, hesitating for a second before he inclined his head, replying in an even voice: “Does that mean I can look?”

“Of course not! How did you read that as an invitation!? We’re definitely never, _ever,_ going to go swimming together!”

“We have P.E.”, Eugeo reasoned.

“I don’t need you to bring in reality right now! I’ve never been so self-conscious about my chest before!”

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you from any lecherous eyes.”

“That includes you!”, Kazuto let out a deep breath then slowly lowered the school bag. “You’re just making it worse…”

“I thought you’d appreciate some joking.”

Kazuto squinted at him. “I’m not sure how much of that was joking and it scares me.”

Eugeo wisely decided not to speak up.

Until now Kazuto was taking his confession relatively well but then again Eugeo had never seriously thought he wouldn’t. Get rejected? Yes. But Kazuto wasn’t the type to shun people for their sexual preferences, so even if things would be awkward for some while, Eugeo was confident things would be fine because Kazuto was nice. Stupidly nice but nice nonetheless.

_It would be fine._

Somehow no matter how often he repeated this mantra, it didn’t really do anything to calm him down. Kazuto had even bantered with him, albeit in an awkward manner, so things were_ just fine _between them.

Even if Eugeo might have accidentally convinced Kazuto that he was a pervert.

“Are you all right?”, he asked Kazuto, watching him frown.

“… I’m all right. But… if you liked me back then already then you probably liked me _at that time_ too. I didn’t notice. Eugeo, I’m sorry. I honestly didn’t realize. No, maybe you yourself didn’t know but I should have. If I didn’t then it’s probably because it would have been uncomfortable for me, so I ignored it. I’m sorry.”

“There you go again apologizing for things I don’t know about.”

“Yeah, but… I didn’t get the chance then.”

“Your answer to my confession?”

“… Can you give me some time? I never thought about it.”

“That’s fine.”

“Why do you sound so happy?”

“Because it isn’t an instant no. I was prepared for that.”

“I wouldn’t have answered no, I’d have said thank you and then apologized.”

“Are you sure you should be telling me that?”

Kazuto scowled at him then turned around to hide his red face.

“It’s fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eugeo: *confesses*  
Readers + Kirito :*surprised Pikachu face*


	14. Chapter 14

“Kirito, I’ve been waiting in this forest for the past six years for you to come.”

* * *

Eugeo was waiting at the coffee shop Kazuto had pointed out and was slowly but surely starting to become impatient. Kazuto had texted him ten minutes ago he’d be here in a few and if he came any later, his drink would be cold.

The bell rang and the door opened to let in a dishevelled Kazuto. He looked around the room until his eyes meet Eugeo’s disapproving ones and shrunk in response. “H-Hey, Eugeo…”

“You’re late.”

Kazuto cleared his throat awkwardly, sitting himself in front of him, before looking with surprise at the beverage on the table. “Did you cheat on me while I was gone?”, he joked and really, he hadn’t even answered his confession yet even though it had been two days, so Eugeo could call it nothing but tasteless. Kazuto seemed to realize his mistake because he cleared his throat another time, suddenly finding the napkin in front of him very interesting.

“It’s yours”, Eugeo replied after he felt that Kazuto had squirmed sufficiently enough. “It’s cold now though.”

“Tha— I bet it still tastes great! After all it’s something Eugeo-kun so graciously gave me.” Kazuto took a sip before he froze.

“What’s wrong?”

“… It’s good.”

“I see?”

Kazuto looked up at him, looking strangely vulnerable. “It’s perfect. Exactly how I like it.”

“Kazuto?”

Kazuto’s hand shook slightly when he let down the cup. “… I never told you how I like my kohiro, Eugeo. I never even told you that I like it in the first place.”

“That’s…” Eugeo didn’t know what to answer to that. He didn’t have an explanation. “You do that all the time…”

Kazuto smiled at him, squeezing his cup. “I do.”

“…”

“Eugeo, thank you. Really, thank you so much.”

* * *

Kazuto cried again afterwards and Eugeo patted his shoulder silently, the topic of his confession forgotten.


	15. Chapter 15

Eugeo woke up after a dream of hacking away at a tree together with Kirito— no, Kazuto, and sighed. These strange dreams were becoming more frequent and he was pretty sure meeting Kazuto had triggered them. At the very least he knew now why Kazuto had asked him whether he had ever felled a tree before… not that they had been anywhere close to _felling_ it.

His mood while walking to school could kindly be described as bad and only worsened when he heard the laughter of one of his classmates. It might just be his paranoia talking but after what had happed recently, Eugeo was overly conscious of them. Then again, Kazuto seemed like the exact opposite. Since befriending Eugeo he had become steadily more unconcerned about the opinion of his classmates though not in any way even marginally more interested in interacting with them.

Eugeo was ashamed to admit that that made him happy.

He knew that for Kazuto’s well-being he should be invested in him widening his social circle but this situation right now where he and Kazuto lived essentially in their own world, only sometimes interacting with others in passing, frankly pleased him a lot. For the sake of his sanity he decided not to think about that too much. Ignoring things was fine too, right? Right?

It wasn’t like he was keeping him away from them after all.

Eugeo needed to think about something else.

“What a dark face.”

“Is this how you greet people?”, Eugeo answered while turning around to see Kazuto grinning at him.

“Only you.”

“I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”

Kazuto saddled up next to him, his grin still not fading, the light of the sun reflecting in his eyes. “You should take it as one.”

“… There is no way you could have seen my face, I was facing the other way.”

Kazuto hummed. “I could tell from your way of walking. I’m your partner after all.”

A small exchange like this was enough to raise Eugeo’s mood, the air coming easier to his lungs. Kazuto definitely was dangerous. But he’d known that a long time ago.

“So, about my confession…”, he began, Kazuto tensing up in response.

“Ahhh, look at the time! We need to hurry up, Eugeo-kun! Otherwise we’ll be too late!”, Kazuto exclaimed, almost running towards the school building.

Eugeo made an exasperated noise, speeding up to keep up with him. At this point Kazuto was definitely just running away from having to answer and Eugeo would be less upset about this if he hadn’t already made it clear that even a rejection would be fine. Not that he wanted to be rejected – actually alone the thought was enough to make him slightly panic – but he didn’t want Kazuto to feel like it was either a yes or the end of their friendship.

Because it wasn’t. It definitely wasn’t. Eugeo wanted to be around him, even if Kazuto got married and had three children.

“Stop running!”, Eugeo said, evading a third-year.

Kazuto started laughing, turning his head around just slightly to wink at him. “Then catch me!”

Well, if Kazuto was offering…

Eugeo jumped, bowling over Kazuto, who landed on the grass, Eugeo splayed across him, before Kazuto played dirty and tickled his stomach, using Eugeo’s distraction to exchange positions. Kazuto didn’t waste any time to use his advantageous position to mess up Eugeo’s hair like he used to when they were children, his grin bright, and Eugeo started to complain half-heartedly, laughing too strongly to really put any effort into throwing Kazuto off.

“I win”, Kazuto muttered conspiratorially, his body coming to rest on Eugeo’s thighs and maybe Eugeo should really break up their current position but he was rapidly losing any interest in doing so.

“Why do you always go for my hair?”, he questioned, grabbing Kazuto’s hands.

“Because it’s soft, it’s nice to touch.” That almost made Eugeo want to stop struggling. “And it looks funny when you mess it up.”

Kazuto was a dick.

“If you just asked me, I’d let you touch it even without this”, he said, silently berating himself for being utterly whipped.

Kazuto’s hands twitched in his grasp, some red filling his cheeks, before he lowered his head, his hair hiding his expression. “Oh. Okay.” He seemed unsure what to do with his body, squirming on Eugeo’s lap and— Eugeo really had to stop this.

“Kazuto”, he bit out, his voice slightly strained. “Please stop moving around so much…”

“What are you—?”, Kazuto’s brows were slightly furrowed before realization dawned in his eyes, his face colouring so fast that it had to be unhealthy. Eugeo was sure he was matching him in intensity at this point. “_Perv—!_ Just let go!”

Kazuto jerked backwards, falling flat onto his ass on the grass.

“Are you all right?”, Eugeo asked, some guilt creeping up on him.

“I’m fine”, Kazuto responded, a little bit too embarrassed to meet his eyes. “What about you?”

“I’m fine.”

“But…” Black eyes glanced at him. “You have a slight problem…”

_“I’m fine.” _

“Do you need some privacy?”

“I said I’m fine!”, Eugeo said, shame colouring his voice.

“There’s a rarely used boys toilet in the third floor…”

“What don’t you understand about I’m fine?!”

“I don’t think you can go to class with that…”

“It’ll go away!”

Kazuto made an unconvinced sounding noise. “In the time we have left?”

“That’s…”

“We’ll be too late, won’t we?”

“Probably.”

“They’ll definitely assume we were making out. Especially considering our appearances.”

Oh no.

“Please just go on without me. I’ll come afterwards.”

“I don’t think that’s going to change anything.”

Eugeo burrowed his face in his hands and let out a pained noise.

“Don’t worry, Eugeo!”, Kazuto patted his shoulder – not the best time for that but Eugeo didn’t even bother speaking up. “It’s not going to change their opinion of us or anything, so it doesn’t really matter!”

… Was that supposed to cheer him up?

Whatever.

Eugeo didn’t care anymore.

So what if his class thought he was making out with Kazuto? He wanted to make out with Kazuto. The only problem was the fact that they weren’t making out, really.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fic is definitely accidentally actually starting to deserve its rating.


	16. Chapter 16

Kirito was a mess and if he had listened to Eugeo, he wouldn’t be this panicked, studying last minute for their exams. The situation he was in right now was completely Kirito’s fault but Eugeo still found himself helping out Kirito wherever he could, revising with him and bringing him food.

“So many laws”, Kirito complained, _again._ “The fact that we need to know all of them by word is just ridiculous.”

“Stop complaining and concentrate.”

“Ugh, you honour student.”

“So are you if you remember. You are also an Elite Swordsman-in-Training.”

“I’m below your rank though.”

Considering that Kirito never studied until the day before an exam and spent a lot of time training Eugeo, Eugeo was almost insulted by Kirito pointing out their ranks all the time like it meant something. Like both of them didn’t know Eugeo was nowhere close to Kirito’s skill in sword fighting yet.

“Chapter five, article three?”, Eugeo asked and Kirito groaned in response.

* * *

Kazuto was happily scarfing down some cake while Eugeo was exerting way too much effort to not stare at him like a creep, instead trying to pay attention to his own confectionary. Unlike Kazuto who liked both bitter and sweet things, Eugeo couldn’t stand coffee, especially black, though he knew from experience that the coffee Kazuto was drinking right now was actually pretty sweet, tasting faintly like hazelnuts.

“Do you like your cake?”, Kazuto inquired between bites, making small pleased sounding noises. Eugeo was glad he wasn’t using chopsticks right now, otherwise everything would have landed on his plate again and he had the sneaking suspicion Kazuto had realized his fixation on him eating.

“It’s good.”

Not that he had tasted much considering how preoccupied he was…

“That’s great! There is this cake shop around Ikebukuro station with some really great limited edition cakes but it’s not the time yet for them, so let’s go over there at the third.”

Eugeo was about to agree thoughtlessly since he never had any other plans either way before he remembered something. “Isn’t that two days before our midterms?”

Kazuto’s fork stopped half-way to his mouth. “Ah, you’re right.”

“Have you been studying?”

“If you regularly study, there is no reason to cram before your exams.”

“You don’t study”, Eugeo stated with full conviction. Kazuto pulled a face as if he’d been caught.

“I’ll be fine, I’ve never failed a test before.”

A miracle really but then again Kazuto was really smart. “How are your grades?”

“… It depends.”

“On what?”

“On the subject”, Kazuto said, refusing to extrapolate any further.

Eugeo felt the most dreadful feeling of Deja-vu wash over him. “You don’t expect me to teach you, do you?”

“Of course not”, he responded, offended. “I’ve been doing this for years alone, I’ll be fine.”

“Good.”

“…”

“Let’s meet up the day before to study instead.”

“But the cake—“

“We’ll _study._ And after the midterms we can go to that shop.”

Kazuto sighed exasperatedly like he was the one doing Eugeo a favour here and agreed while sulking. “Fine, but the Saturday after midterms we’ll go.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Done.

It wasn’t a perfect match by any means but even though the shape was different, it tasted a lot like the honey pie they had eaten in Centoria. Eugeo increased his grip on the fork, needing to take a moment to get his act together, Kazuto smiling at him understandingly.

“… How long did it take you to find this?”

“It was coincidence”, he cut off another piece of his cake. “When I saw they had honey cake, I could just _not _try it. Unfortunately I’m only average at cooking and I’ve barely ever baked in my life, so this is the closest I could get to that cake.”

Eugeo took another bike, trying not to tear up by blinking too often, his heart feeling all weird and heavy. “… Let’s try. To make the pie.”

“With your and my skills?”

“Is that a no?”

“It’s a yes.”

* * *

It was evening by the time they left the shop and to Eugeo’s surprise Kazuto had offered to pay the bill this time. Eugeo had still been in shock when Kazuto had ushered him out, grinning blindingly the entire time.

He seemed almost nervous as soon as they were out, adjusting the position of his bag around three times before he stopped in front of a small road blanketed by trees from both sides, motioning Eugeo to stay put.

“I’ll be back right away.”

Eugeo raised his eyebrow but stayed where he was despite his urge to follow Kazuto nonetheless, his eyes surveying the road. Greenish stones made up the floor, the trees almost thick enough that you couldn’t see the houses through them, the streetlamps a charmingly round shape. In the night the street surely had to look beautiful, though the benches in the corners made him wonder if this wasn’t instead more of a park than a street.

Right now, it was somewhere between night and day, beyond sunset but before everything would become completely dark.

He was so preoccupied that he didn’t notice Kazuto approaching him from behind before a finger poked his back, Eugeo turning around just to blink confusedly at the thing in front of him.

A bouquet of roses.

_Blue roses._

Eugeo blinked again, his mouth moving uselessly, his eyes darting between the roses Kazuto had shoved into his face and Kazuto whose face was surprisingly calm but still betrayed his nerves with his slowly growing blush.

“… Why flowers…?”

Kazuto scratched his neck, fidgeting awkwardly in place before he took a deep breath and faced him straight on, black eyes catching onto his. “I like you too.”

Eugeo swallowed, his heart speeding up in his chest, unable to turn away from the sight in front of him. “You brought me flowers for that?”, he croaked embarrassingly, his throat tight.

Kazuto’s blush intensified, a little bit of panic breaking out. “You like flowers, so I thought it was a good idea… it’s kind of heavy, though, sorry I didn’t really think about it—”

“You like them better”, Eugeo interrupted. If anyone should have gotten flowers it should have been him. “But I’m happy. Thank you, Kirito.”

“K-Kirito—?”

He hadn’t meant to slip up but Kazuto didn’t look upset and Eugeo felt ready to burst. Eugeo moved forward, his left hand brushing over Kazuto’s shoulder before he grabbed his back while his right hand still awkwardly held onto the roses, his chest pressing against Kazuto’s. It was not the first time they had hugged each other but it was the first time Kazuto’s heart was beating this fast, no, that both of their hearts were beating this fast. Kazuto’s hands came up not to push him away but to pull him closer. Eugeo closed his eyes, Kazuto’s body warmth seeping into his body, and he had to bite his lips to stop himself from tearing up, a small sound leaving his lips nonetheless.

Kazuto made a soothing noise, his hand softly petting Eugeo’s head. “What’s wrong, Eugeo?”

“I’ve been having dreams”, he confessed. “Dreams in which I called you Kirito. You have them too, right?”

Kazuto kept quiet for a second, his hand stopping, then resumed his movement. “For me they’re not so much dreams as memories I feel like I’m almost recalling but never really do. I’ll think I’ve done that before, or want to talk to somebody that doesn’t _exist_—“, he broke off. “Until you came along I thought all of that was nonsense to be honest. Things I made up. But you… I couldn’t have made you up. This person I’ve never met before, couldn’t possibly have ever met before, right in front of me. I’ve wanted to meet you for so long, what else could I have done but cry?”

Eugeo chuckled a little bit helplessly, tightening his grip on Kazuto, who didn’t complain. “Honestly, I feel like crying, too.”

“You can.”

Eugeo shook his head, breathing in a familiar soothing scent, and burrowed his face deeper into Kazuto’s neck. “No, I’d rather smile. I’ve finally met you again. _I’ve missed you so much_—“

“You didn’t remember me but you still missed me?”

“Again.”

Kazuto shook in his arms. “You’re right._ Again._ This time you need to stay, _you need to _Eugeo, I can’t do that again— I don’t want to—!“

“I’ll be fine, I won’t leave”, Eugeo responded despite not knowing what Kazuto was talking about. It was fine, he didn’t need to. There was really only one answer to this. “This time let’s really be together.”

“Until the end?”, Kazuto asked quietly. And certainly that was too heavy. Both as an answer to a love confession and for a student this was too much but this wasn’t the answer to a confession or the sentiment of a student. This was a question for _that _Eugeo from Kirito the swordsman.

“Not until the end. From Underworld to this this world to whatever may lie beyond, no matter where I want to be with you.”

Kazuto laughed wetly. “That’s too heavy, Eugeo.”

Eugeo moved a little bit back, Kazuto tightening his grip on him like he was afraid he’d leave. He wouldn’t. Not if he could help it and even if he couldn’t— he would do his best to come back. No matter what.

There were some tears running down Kazuto’s face but all in all he was remarkably composed compared to Eugeo who surely looked like a mess, his vision blurring every few seconds. He brushed away some tears with his thumb, Kazuto moving into the movement, a gentle smile lighting up his face.

“That’s the kind of human being I am”, Eugeo admitted. “I’m probably not like you think I am. I get easily jealous, am clingy, think horrible things all the time and in truth I’m not kind.“

“That’s how you see yourself?” Kazuto gently grabbed his wrist of the hand that was on his cheek, his fingertips sliding over his palm until he was holding onto his fingers. “There’s nobody who thinks as badly about you as you do. I’ve been through the worst with you, so I know. Whatever flaws you think you might have, I love all that about you. Even when you derive decidedly too much amusement of me failing at something or secretly wish death upon our classmates. I know you well, so I know all that, but I’ve always loved you.”

Kazuto kissed his hand, softly his lips lingering for a second before he pulled back. “I love you.”

“Tha— That’s—!”, Eugeo said, flustered. “Kirito, you can’t just— wait, I wasn’t supposed to call you Kirito, sorry! You said before—“

“It’s fine. I don’t mind anymore… but you aren’t going to call me Kazuto anymore?” Kazuto looked away, seeming a little bit shy. “I quite liked that though…”

“I can use both”, Eugeo offered.

“You’re definitely going to keep on calling me Kirito the whole time”, Kazuto answered, sounding unconvinced. “Asuna was the same.”

“Asuna? Who?”

“Ah, you’re making that face.”

“What face?”, Eugeo asked, somewhat defensively.

“The same face you always pulled when you saw me hanging out with Alice. You sure get jealous easily, don’t you?”

Eugeo spluttered, wondering when their positions had so utterly reversed. “I warned you about that!”

Kazuto smiled smugly and once again Eugeo was tempted to pull his cheeks to make him suffer. “It’s fine, it’s cute. Seeing you pout over me is actually kind of nice…”

“You’re a menace.”

Kazuto hummed, lowering his eyelashes, his smile not faltering in the slightest. “Hey, Eugeo, can I kiss you?”

“You’re asking me that?”, Eugeo responded, embarrassment welling up in him. If he answered that with yes he’d never live it down.

“Well, you might want to wait until we’re married for all I know.”

Eugeo scowled. “I’m not that old-fashioned.”

A snort escaped Kazuto before he reigned himself in. “You were. I’ve never met such an innocent seventeen year-old before.”

“Says the guy that brought me flowers. Not to mention roses.”

“Th-There was a reason for that!”

“Kirito, can I kiss you?”, he asked, brushing some of Kazuto’s smooth black hair behind his ear.

Kazuto looked like he wanted to protest for a second before he sighed overly fondly, his head tilting up just a little bit.

“That’s fine, Eugeo. Kiss me.”

“_That’s fine_… you… that doesn’t sound very enthusiastic…” Eugeo nervously moved forward, hovering centimetres before Kazuto’s face, his hands shivering. Kazuto’s fingers burrowed themselves into his hair, carding carefully through his strands without pulling.

“Don’t worry, Eugeo, I want to. I wanted to kiss you back when we were both still children even though I didn’t get_ why_—“

Eugeo moved in, their lips pressing gently against each other, Kazuto letting out a soft breath against him, before separating again.

“Was that all right? I never kissed anyone before…”, he murmured, their foreheads touching each other.

Kazuto hummed. “It felt nice. Can I kiss you again?”

Eugeo nodded wordlessly, swallowing heavily. He could feel Kazuto’s smile on his lips when the distance between them was reduced to zero, Kazuto tilting his head to make the movement smoother. Kazuto’s hands felt pleasant where they were stroking his hair, his lips moving against Eugeo’s, sending light shivers down his spine, and Eugeo felt himself melt, involuntarily making small noises.

This time they only stopped when Eugeo was feeling dizzy from the lack of air, his breathing too fast, looking ridiculously dishevelled compared to Kazuto who was only slightly red in the face.

“Are you all right, Eugeo?”

Eugeo gave up on straightening his hair and instead decided to answer verbally, frowning slightly. “I’m fine… Why are you so good at this?”

“Ohhh, I’m good at this huh…”, Kazuto said, looking increasingly smug and Eugeo wished he had never said anything.

“Just leave it.”

“No, please tell me more, Eugeo-kun.”

“I’m leaving.”

“No, wait, Eugeo—“, Kazuto called, moving a few steps forward before almost tripping over something. For a few seconds both Eugeo and Kazuto simply stared at the thing that he had stumbled over. “… Why are the flowers I gave you on the ground?”

“I had a prettier flower in my hands”, Eugeo quickly responded, Kazuto wheezing in response.

“Don’t do that. Never again.”

“You said worse things.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Should I remind you?”

Kazuto started humming obnoxiously. “I’m not listening~”

“You know, Kazuto, seeing you become all shy like this is really cute.”

“I said I’m not listening!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They are just kissing but reading through what I had written I thought to myself: "Somehow this reads like porn".  
I have the sneaking suspicion I'm not just imagining things...

**Author's Note:**

> Both Kirito and Eugeo might seem out of character but I did try to base their personalities on traits already present in cannon. Like Kirito is based on pre-SAO Kirito while Eugeo is just showing off the more 'negative' parts of his personality. Nurture matters a lot.  
... Leaving aside any excuses, I already said this wasn't to be taken seriously.


End file.
